The panic is real among climate alarmists as their scaremongering of the past three decades loses its power over a public awakening from a spell induced by a corrupt political class and sustained by a compliant business community and media.
So, what is the response of those holding onto the fantasy that humankind is driving the planet to an overheated apocalypse and that politicians who struggle to manage public services could control something as complex as the climate? They attempt to spice up warmed-over lies with more outrageous ones.
This theater of pathetic prevarication was encapsulated perfectly in humid, overcrowded halls of the recent COP30, the 30th version of the United Nations’ annual climate conference. Year after year, celebrities of politics, business and entertainment fly to exotic locations, burning thousands of gallons of jet fuel, to admonish working people who insist on driving to their jobs and to pressure the Third World to accept energy poverty for the sake of a world that theoretically might be cooler by a degree or two. The hypocrisy is matched only by the thirst for power and other people’s money.
Held this year in Belém, Brazil, with the Amazon providing a lush backdrop, the smell of desperation was in the air. And speaking of public services, so was the occasional stench of cranky indoor plumbing.
Al Gore, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stood before cameras warning of imminent catastrophe, never acknowledging that previous predictions had failed to materialize.
Here is a sampling of falsehoods:
- The Lie: "The transition away from fossil fuels is inevitable and accelerating." The Truth: Global demand for oil, gas, and coal is at an all-time high. The "transition" lives only in press releases of Western governments. The rest of the world is drilling and mining.
- The Lie: "Climate action creates jobs and wealth." The Truth: “Green mandates destroy industry.” Look at Germany’s deindustrialization and the wreckage of the automotive sector in the U.S. and Europe. "Green jobs" are subsidized mirages that vanish the moment government subsidies disappear.
- The Lie: "We are running out of time." The Truth: “We have heard this for 50 years and counting.” In the 1970s, it was a coming ice age. In the 2000s, it was Arctic ice that would be gone by 2013. The timeline of doom makes the promise of a used car salesman look like a Boy Scout’s pledge.
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Gore attacked President Donald Trump’s move away from the cultic climate movement, knowing that without the checkbook of the U.S. taxpayer the U.N.’s redistribution schemes are dead.
Gore even turned his fire on one of his own, Bill Gates. Why? Because Gates dared to suggest that perhaps, just perhaps, more immediate threats like hunger and disease should be prioritized over the climate crusade’s nebulous, ever-shifting goalposts. Members of the climate elite have become so intoxicated by their own dogma that any deviation – even from a fellow traveler like Gates – is considered treason.
Something as ambitious as COP30’s "Global Ethical Stocktake" – an initiative to create a governance structure superseding national sovereignty – can ill afford dissent among the faithful. Their vision is to direct countries away from coal plants, oil drilling, meat consumption and so on to “save the planet” from a made-up crisis.
To manage dissent, COP30 advanced a “Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change.” While framed as a defense of truth, it would be Orwellian worldwide censorship.
The real misinformation has been repeated predictions of apocalypse, fabricated links between bad weather and a harmless gas necessary for life on Earth and attacks on the reputations of those who question climate orthodoxy.
Gore ended his main COP30 speech urging data-driven action. Following that advice would include examinations of crop harvests, changes in standards of living and deaths from natural disasters. All have been trending in a positive direction for decades – good news that only adds to the panic.
Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Fairfax, Virginia. He holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor’s in engineering from Anna University, India.
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